British Patient Capital has invested USD65 million in SV Health Investors’s USD265 million fund, SV7 Impact Medicine Fund (IMF), which is dedicated to investing in biotech companies.
The IMF is SV’s first biotech fund. It will aim to turn scientific breakthroughs into biotech companies producing high impact precision medicine drugs for poorly treated diseases.
So far the fund has invested in UK-based Alchemab, which develops antibody therapies for diseases including cancers, infectious diseases, and neurodegenerative conditions.
Cancer Research UK launched a partnership with SV Health Investors in June 2019 to focus on speeding up the translation of the organisation’s research into the development of new cancer medicines for patients.
In May 2020, Kate Bingham, managing partner of SV Health Investors, was appointed chair of the UK’s Vaccine Taskforce. In her work for SV, Kate’s biotech investments have generated six drugs for the treatment of patients with inflammatory and autoimmune disease and cancer.
“The strength of SV’s UK based biotech team, and their partnerships with groups such as Cancer Research UK, ensures access to some of the UK’s most exciting high potential biotech investment opportunities,” said Catherine Lewis La Torre, British Patient Capital’s CEO.
“The potential for precision medicine to significantly improve healthcare outcomes not only addresses some of society’s most pressing challenges, highlighted by Covid-19, but also offers SV a compelling investment opportunity,” she added.
Investors in the fund include pharmaceutical companies, family offices, pension funds and charities such as Cancer Research UK, Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.
This latest investment increases British Patient Capital’s allocation to life sciences and health tech, building on the Dementia Discovery Fund launched in 2018.
The IMF will use SV’s experience of company creation, focusing mainly on early-stage biotech investments, by providing support through multiple funding rounds. The fund can also invest in late preclinical and clinical stage companies.
